TKO Studios is an American comics publisher founded by

Tze Chun Tze Chun (born Tze-ngo Chun ) is an Cinema of the United States, American film and TV producer, director, writer, painter, and comic book publisher. He was born in Chicago and raised outside of Boston, and graduated from Milton Academy in 1998. ...

& Salvatore Simeone in 2017.A New Comics Publisher Aims to Shake Things Up
The New York Times, December 19, 2018.

History

TKO Studios was founded in 2017 by

& Salvatore Simeone. Unlike the majority of other American comic book publishers, TKO sold their books directly to consumers and comic book shops, completely bypassing distributor

Diamond Comic Distributors Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. (often called Diamond Comics, DCD, or casually Diamond) is an American comic book distributor serving retailers in North America and worldwide. It transports comic books and graphic novels, as well as other popu ...

. In 2020, TKO Studios signed a deal Ingram Publisher Services / Publishers Group West to handle book distribution. The first wave of books launched December 10, 2018 and contained four miniseries: ''The Fearsome Doctor Fang'' by Tze Chun, Mike Weiss, and Dan McDaid; ''Goodnight Paradise'' by Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli; ''Sara'' by

Garth Ennis Garth Ennis (born 16 January 1970) is a Northern Irish-American comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series ''Preacher'' with artist Steve Dillon, his nine-year run on Marvel Comics' ''Punisher'' franchise, and '' The Boys'' with artist Dar ...

and

Steve Epting Stephen "Steve" Epting is an Americans, American comics artist. He is best known for his work on ''The Avengers (comic book), The Avengers'' and ''Captain America (comic book), Captain America'' for Marvel Comics. Early life Epting's influences ...

; and ''The 7 Deadly Sins'' by Tze Chun and Artyom Trakhanov. Their first wave of books were all released in three formats; a trade paperback collection, a box set of single issues, and digitally in single or collected editions. During their initial release the first issue of each series was available free digitally so consumers and retailers could preview the series before purchasing the rest. The second wave launched in October 28, 2019 using the same release format for another four miniseries: ''The Banks'' by

Roxane Gay Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection ''Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayiti ...

and

Ming Doyle Ming Doyle is an American comic book illustrator and writer. Her works, including ''Anatomy of a Metahuman'', have been published by Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Candlewick Press. ''Multiversity Comics'' praised Doyle's work for its "heavily li ...

; ''Pound for Pound'' by

Natalie Chaidez Natalie Chaidez is an American television writer and producer, known for '' Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles'', ''Hunters'', and ''12 Monkeys''. She's currently the showrunner for '' Queen of the South''. More recently, Chaidez signed a ...

and Andy Belanger; and ''Sentient'' by

Jeff Lemire Jeff Lemire (; born March 21, 1976) is a Canadian comic book writer, artist, and television producer. He is the author of critically acclaimed titles including the '' Essex County Trilogy'', '' Sweet Tooth'', and '' The Nobody''. His written work ...

and Gabriel Walta. In 2020, ''Sentient'' became the first title from TKO to be nominated for an

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

, when the series picked up a nomination for Best Limited Series. The third wave of books launched in November 9, 2020 with three comic book miniseries: “Lonesome Days Savage Nites” by Salvatore Simeone and Steve Niles ''The Pull'' by

Steve Orlando Steve Orlando is an American comic book writer, known for his work for DC Comics writing characters such as Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman, and two series starring Midnighter, which were nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. Early ...

and Ricardo López Ortiz; and ''Redfork'' by Alex Paknadel and Nil Vandrell. In addition the three miniseries, TKO released an illustrated prose collection ''Blood Like Garnets'' by Leigh Harlen with illustrations by Maria Nguygen and a new series of one-shot comic books under the banner ''TKO Shorts'' with three titles ''Seeds of Eden'', ''The Father of All Things'' and ''Night Train''. In 2021 Lonesome Days Savage Nites was a finalist for a Bram Stoker Award

TKO Rogue

In November 2021, TKO announced TKO Rogue, an imprint focused on prose works. The first two books from this imprint will be ''Brood X'' and ''One Eye Open'', coming out January 2022.

Published works

Comics miniseries

Comics shorts

Prose novels

Original graphic novels

¹Originally published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

in 2017-2018 as ''Scales & Scoundrels #1-10'' ²Originally published by

in 2018 as ''Scales & Scoundrels #11-12'' plus 250 pages of original content.

Media adaptions

In August 2020 ''The Banks'' was put into development as a feature film by production company MACRO with Gay returning to pen the script with Charles D. King, Poppy Hanks, Jelani Johnson, Tze Chun and Jatin Thakker serving as producers.Roxane Gay to Adapt Graphic Novel 'The Banks' for TKO Studios, Macro
The Hollywood Reporter, August 12, 2020.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2017 establishments in California American companies established in 2017 Comic book publishing companies of the United States Companies based in Los Angeles Publishing companies established in 2017 Book publishing companies based in California